Astrape lands €7.9M to improve data center efficiency

Integrated-photonics startup Astrape Networks announced the completion of a 7.9-million-euro seed capital round, including a 2.5-million-euro grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC). Founded in 2022 as a spinoff from Eindhoven University of Technology and incubated by HightechXL, Astrape addresses critical performance bottlenecks in short-distance data networking by introducing dynamic optical bypass possibilities seamlessly into any data center network. The Eindhoven-based firm claims network hardware can handle up to 50 percent more traffic with its technology.

“The explosive growth of AI and HPC applications has pushed data centers to their limits,” says Francesco Pessolano, Astrape CEO and co-founder. “Our network solutions optimize server-to-server communication and load balancing, dramatically improving data center efficiency and sustainability.” His company targets both multi-tenant data centers and hyperscalers such as AWS and Azure.

The round was co-led by Photonventures, Join Capital and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), with participation from Shift Invest.